Reply to APS -- Want to return but spouse resistant -- please clarify curriculum 5th grade

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We left APS for Langley early in the pandemic, as our DD was struggling with the isolation of remote school and had trouble reading so much on the screen.

We have had a good experience at Langley, but it is quite expensive for us, DD misses her friends, and we would love to be part of a neighborhood school again.

Spouse believes reading and writing are underemphasized in APS, so can someone who has just finished 5th grade help me win this argument:

[b]How many novels were assigned for 5th grade students to read on their own at home? [/b] Langley had DD read 5 novels, then write essays and do a quiz on them.  Which spouse really appreciates since our DD is a reluctant reader, so having it "assigned" has made it much easier to get her to read independently.[/quote]

Ha.  You should be looking farther down the road than 5th grade.  5 novels is more than either of my kids read in their Arlington high school English classes.  
And they don't even necessarily read the complete novel when they work on one.  This is our experience from both general ed and intensified English classes.
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Let me know overstate it, these were short novels like Long Walk to Water and Red Kayak. Something an adult reader would finish in a day or so.

Surely they are assigned at least that much reading by middle school? I want to sway my spouse and save this tuition![/quote]

Hate to tell you, OP...  Here's a sample of the assigned high school reading from the experience of our two high schoolers:

First kid:
Freshman year general ed English:  "To Kill a Mockingbird "(took over 8 weeks to get through - but at least they actually read the entire book). About to begin "Romeo and Juliet" when COVID shut everything down and APS determined "no new material."   
Sophomore year general ed English:  PART of "1984." Kid doesn't remember what else; but I can't recall other novels, either.  This was COVID distance learning year (so there should have been PLENTY of time for reading!)
Junior year general ed English:  "The Invisible Man" as independent reading only.  "Every Day." Some other book my kid doesn't remember, though still not a "classic" - rather what my kid calls "a teenager book."

Second kid:
Freshman intensified English:  short story "Rockinghorse Winner."  PARTS of "The Odyssey." Teacher decided in the later part (after skipping a middle part in order to read the book chronologically rather than in the order it was written, to assign chapters and have students give presentations "instead of everybody having to read it all.")  WATCHED "Romeo and Juliet" -- did not read a single chapter of it.
My freshman has learned from another kid they know in a different (general ed) English class that their class actually did 4 books, including "To Kill a Mockingbird" "R&J," "The Odyssey," and forgets the 4th.  It is not clear, however, whether they actually read each one completely, or if those were just the works they covered.  My child's intensified class spent a good deal of time on R&J, even though they never read a single page of it - hence "studied" it.

There are usually other short stories and poetry units each year as well, and maybe some "independent reading" for a reading log - the amount of that reading of course being dependent on the student.  So there's more total reading than the list of novels indicates.  Still, extremely light on reading complete books and relatively few books at all.

There was more reading at the middle school level than high school.  And perhaps this is just our experience, or just the experience at one of the high schools.  Maybe others can give you a sample of what their high school kids have had to read.  Regardless, maybe you'll be fine for middle school; but you might want to return to Langley for high school unless the other Arlington high schools/programs are significantly different.  I'm looking forward to AP English to see if there's a significant up-tick in expectations.

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